Self Destruction
by April Fear
Summary: Lock enrolls at Scare School and becomes Thatch's best friend. But then Thatch gets disowned by his father for doing the nicest deed anyone could commit-talking someone out of suicide. Then Thatch tries to be more like his delinquent friend Lock-smoking, drinking, and destroying himself. Teenage!LockxThatch. Rated M for smoking, drinking, cuss, and possibly smut in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

It was an average, boring day at Scare School the day Lock enrolled. Thatch Manora was sitting in Professor Burns' class, when there was a knock on the door.

Their teacher opened the door and stepped out to talk to the headmasters. When he stepped back into the room, he was followed by a redheaded boy that looked about Thatch's age. He had gold eyes and pale skin, wearing all red, and he was taller and a bit more muscular than pretty much all the other boys at Scare School. His left eyebrow was pierced vertically, and his most noticeable trait was his tail.

"Students, this is Lock, one of the three new students from Halloween Town. He is the next Pumpkin King,* or 'King Of Halloween,' so I expect you to treat him with appropriate awe and trembling. Take a seat next to Thatch, Lock."

Thatch smirked as Lock took the seat next to him. _King Of Halloween, huh?_

Thatch whispered to Lock with a smirk, "Hey, new guy! Just wanted to warn you to stay out of my way. My family's won every scaring award here for the past ten generations, and I don't want some 'Pumpkin King' ruining it."

"Oh, really?" Lock whispered back with a wider smirk. "It would be a real shame if I won all those trophies this year, huh?"

"Hm... Then I'll make sure to partner up with you on some of them," Thatch whispered.

Lock winked and smirked a bit wider, displaying his full set of fangs that are large enough to rival even Thatch's.

"Hey, don't get too cocky," Thatch chuckled.

Lock flipped him off and stuck out his tongue good-naturedly, showing a tongue piercing which conveniently had jewelry reading 'Fuck you.'

Thatch tried to contain laughter, and Lock gave him a genuine smile, which is pretty rare for the imp.*

Lock and Thatch shared a wide smirk which could easily translate to, 'This is the start of a beautiful friendship.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**So how was the first chapter?**  
**Footnotes:**  
***Pumpkin King- Long story short, I have a headcanon that sometimes Pumpkin Kings are replaced with heirs. And Jack chose Lock as his heir. I might write a prequel about that.**  
***imp- I do believe Lock is an imp. Except for the small and ugly part. Just look at the page for it: **** wiki/Imp**  
**By the way, just to say, Wikipedia is a much better source of information than people give it credit for. Try editing a page and putting wrong information. Any and all wrong information is corrected in a few minutes. So don't give me hate about Wikipedia.**


	2. Chapter 2

**So I was thinking, and maybe it would be nice for you to know what Lock would look like in this story. I CANNOT DRAW, so I found links to some pictures that sum up what I think Lock might look like. These pictures ARE NOT MINE. **

**Lock looks as he does in this picture: (Just take out the spaces in the url.)**

**https: . /9065ae69a65193a01803089035a956e9/ tumblr_n7ngdexnG41rlu43ho1_500. jpg**

**His body type (the first one. The second looks overly-muscular in my opinion):**

let ras et blog.

**And his eyes:**

** cache. desktopnexus. co **

**And of course, he has his piercings that I mentioned earlier.**

Thatch walks onto the schoolyard hoping to find the imp from earlier. He spots the larger male standing beside a witch and a male... ghoul? (A/N: Barrel's species is a mystery to me.) The group seemed to be avoiding other students, preferring each other's company-or at least not caring for the company of others. The redheaded imp was smoking a cigarette and quite obviously trying to ignore the chattering witch.

"Hey new guy!" Thatch called out to him.

Lock, looking relieved to be free of his female companion, smiled at the smaller male. "Well, if it isn't shorty!"

Thatch scowled. "My name's Thatch, and I'm not short."

Lock chuckles, "Well this might just come as a shocker to you, but my name isn't 'new guy.' It's Lock."

It took Thatch a moment to realize, but the witch was glaring at him. "So who's your new _friend _Lock?" She asked in a shrill voice that made Thatch's skin crawl... And in a bad way. She said the word 'friend' with contempt dripping from her voice.

"His name's Thatch Manora and I think you should treat my new friend with some fuckin' respect, Shock," Lock growled, flicking his cigarette ashes at her.

Thatch tried to contain a mix between an arrogant smirk and a smile. He'd just met Lock, yet Lock was treating him with more respect than his own gang had ever shown him.

The young ghoul... thing... pushed his way in front of Shock to introduce himself. "Hi. I'm Barrel."

Lock smiled and placed his arm around Barrel's shoulders. "This is my adoptive brother, and that horrid thing-" he pointed to Shock "-is our pet flying monkey."

Lock winced slightly as she hit him in the back of the head for his comment. "You hit like a girl!" Lock growled.

"I **am **a girl you jackass!" Shock shrieked.

"You sure don't look like one!"

Thatch and Barrel winced at their screaming and arguing. "Do they fight like this all the time?" Thatch asked.

Barrel nodded, "Almost every day."

"So I'm guessing she's your adoptive sister?"

Barrel nods once more. "We were raised by the Boogie Man, but he, uh, died years ago, so Jack Skellington took us in."

"He's the Pumpkin King right now?"

"Yeah, and Shock's been starting more fights with Lock than ever since he was picked. Between you and me," Barrel's voice dropped to a whisper, "I think she's jealous."

"Gee," Thatch winced as their yelling got louder, "You don't say."

Luckily, their yelling was soon silenced when Frankengymteacher strode over to them. "Woah, break it up you two! You need to know who you'll be rooming with. Barrel, there aren't many rooms left, so you'll be rooming with both Casper and Ra. Shock, you're rooming with Mantha and Dummy Girl. Lock, you're with Thatch. There were only supposed to be two people per room, so we'll have to bring in extra beds for you."

When the teacher left, Thatch was able to ask the question he had first approached Lock to ask. "So anyway, I was wondering if you'd want to team up with me soon. We have a pranking contest. You think you'd be any good at that?"

Lock smirked. "It's my favorite hobby, actually. Though I thought they said only three people per team."

"Well, yeah, so I guess this time we won't be teaming up."

"Oh, I didn't say that. I was just suggesting we should kick Shock off the team. Right, Barrel?"

"Right, Lock."

Shock glared at Lock. "I... You know what? Fuck you, Lock." She folded her arms and walked away to look for her new roommates.

"Fuck you too, bitch!" Lock shouted after her. He tossed his cigarette to the ground and stamped it out. "Sorry about that. She can be a royal bitch."

"So... Um... What are we going to be doing for the contest?" Thatch tried to change the subject.

"Well, they said we could get more points if our pranks were dangerous, so my plan starts with an apple filled with razorblades..."

***deep breath* I THINK I ACTUALLY DID WELL ON THIS CHAPTER! :D**

**I'm not going to focus on the main idea of the story JUST YET. First, I want to try and build up Lock and Thatch's friendship. No, I will not be explaining Lock's pranks. I'm not that good at pranking.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So I'm giving chapter 3 a shot. In this chapter, maybe we'll figure out why Shock already seems to loathe Thatch. And we'll see what happens with the pranking contest. Again, I won't be able to think up the pranks, so I'll leave what Lock, Thatch, and Barrel did up to your imaginations. Just think of the most misguided, dangerous pranks you can. **  
** Man, sure does feel weird saying Lock, **_**Thatch, **_**and Barrel, huh?**

Lock and Thatch left Barrel to take a tour of the school. And you know, it could just be his imagination, but Thatch soon started noticing how many females had their eyes trained on Lock. A few seconds after that, he feels someone tug on his cape.

Dummy Girl stood behind him. "Hey, new kid, can I see Thatch for a second?"

Lock shrugs. "Sure."

Dummy Girl leads Thatch into a room where Slither, Mosshead, Casper, Ra, Mantha, Wolfie, Micki (How the fuck do you spell her name?), and Monaco were waiting.

"So what's the deal, guys?" Thatch asked.

"We were just wondering about that new kid, Lock," Mantha said.

"What about him?" Thatch inquired.

"Just... About him in general. Shock just really doesn't like anybody, and Barrel's kind of... Not the sharpest tool in the shed," Ra answered.

"Well, I don't know that much about him. We just met. He's the future Pumpkin King, he's pretty cool, he likes pranking, he smokes, he hates Shock, and he shows me the most respect out of ANYONE else in this school..." Thatch glares at his gang while saying the last part.

"Why would he do that?" Mantha snickered.

"He just so happens to be my new best friend!" Thatch snarled.

"Well, when you find out more about him, make sure to tell us," Micki said.

"Yeah, he's _nightmarish,*_" Monaco finished, swooning. The two of them giggled girlishly.

"The girls just wanna flirt with him. If you find out anything, tell _us_!" Mosshead interrupted, gesturing to the guys.

"Well what do you want to know about him?"

And then everyone was talking at once.

Casper: Is he nice?

Ra: Does he like sports?

Mantha: What kind of music does he like? Oh, more importantly, does he support zombie rights?

Slither: Is he scary?

Mosshead: Has he got a team for the pranking contest?

Dummy Girl: Does he have a girlfriend?

Micki and Monaco: Does he like skeleton girls?

Thatch steps back a little. "Okay then... And um, yeah, Mosshead, he's got a team for the pranking contest."

"Dang."

"I'll find out the rest later. I'd better go show Lock where our dorm is."

Thatch walks out of the room to get Lock when he catches an angry stare. He turns his head to see Shock across the hall.

(Okay, I seriously need to start writing this in Thatch's POV. Third person POV is difficult to write.)

I approach the witch, trying to hide my annoyance... If only because she was Lock's sister. "What do you have against me?" I ask.

She snarls and replies, "Just stay away from Lock. He doesn't need you. He only needs Barrel and I. We're his friends, not you."

I glare back at her. "Well maybe he'd like to choose his friends."

"You'll never be half the friend he needs, you spoiled bastard!"

"Is that the reason you hate me?! Because I'm not good enough to be Lock's friend?!" I shouted.

"I hate you because you're stealing my brothers away from me!"

"Maybe they just want a better friend!"

"Just leave him alone, will you Shock?!" Lock's voice said from the doorway.

I spun around to face the imp himself, who looked frighteningly angry. And not in the good way. Damn this guy was gonna make a good scarer.

He steps in front of me and pushes me behind him and away from Shock. "What has she been telling you?"

"That I wasn't good enough to be your friend," I replied.

"Shock, leave him alone!"

"I WILL ONCE YOU KEEP YOUR BITCH ON A LEASH," Shock shouted at Lock.

A deep, guttural growl came from Lock. "One day you're going to burn in hell for saying that about him."

"Ha! I bet!" She replied sarcastically.

And then Lock lunged at her and scraped his claws across her face, leaving deep, bleeding scratches.

Shock shrieked and yelled, "YOU BASTARD!" She tried to punch Lock, but he just sidestepped, allowing her to fall to the ground.

"Come on, Thatch, I'd like to see our room now."

I nodded and led him into the boy's dormitory, and into our bedroom. "This is my coffin, there's your bed, that's the bathroom, and here's your closet." I pointed to each thing as I named it off.

"Hey, Thatch, I'm sorry about Shock. She's always been like that."

"No problem... But is she going to be okay? Those cuts looked deep."

"Eh, she'll be fine."

I nod, and he yawns loudly. "We should get to bed. The pranking contest begins tomorrow."

A week later, all the students gathered into their groups to hear the results of the pranking contest. I sat beside Lock-my new best friend-and his younger brother Barrel.

My old group-Slither, Dummy Girl, and Mosshead- just looked at each other and shrugged. I hadn't been hanging out with them much. Lock was just a better friend. He was easier to talk to and we had a mutual respect for one another. And we also admittedly had a rapidly growing bond. It had been a week, and we acted like brothers.

I see Shock glaring from across the room again, for the hundredth time this week. _Mad because you were a bad friend? _I huffed in my mind.

Alder and Dash walked onto the stage. "And this year, the pranking award goes to... Lock, Thatch, and Barrel."

The other students clap for us and Lock winks at me as we walk onto the stage to claim our prize. I look down at Shock with a smug expression. Then I glanced over at Lock and Barrel. Two great friends and a new enemy. This should make things more interesting around here...

***nightmarish-I figure that's what they'd say instead of dreamy**

**So...**

**I feel like I rushed this chapter a bit. Anyway, from now on I was thinking we could do an "Ask the Character." You know, where you ask the character a question about what's going on, or about how they feel towards another character. I tend to write faster when my readers show interest, so I thought this might be an excellent way to motivate myself. So please, ask the characters any question, and it'll be answered in the next chapter. :)**

**Example:**

**Q: Lock-What is Shock's problem?**

A: Lock: Beats me. But she seems to be getting worse about it.


End file.
